Deviant Read Free Page B

late. The suns have died and the artificial suns have burned their fuel and guttered out. Darkness reigns and the best efforts of the finest minds are for naught. The last of the artificial life forms has given up the ghost as weakly as the last of the organics. The second law of thermodynamics has proved unstoppable.
    Everything decays. Given enough time, even atoms break down into random protons, neutrons, and electrons, separated from one another by unimaginable spaces.
    Matter itself falls apart at the very end.
    Nothing remains.
    He sees all this and he is awed.
    The universe is still.
    A trillion years pass.
    And then another trillion.
    And then another.
    And that’s how the story ends. There is no twist. There is no hope. There is only nothing. An eternity of nothing.
    Only he can see a way out …
    Only he …
    Only …
    Snow falls on his face. He opens his eyes. In one hand there is a hunting knife. In the other is a phone. He catchesthe moon in the blade. He reads the text: NW STDNT DNNY LPZ. GD 9 .
    A new student?
    That will make exactly one hundred.
    He wonders if Danny owns a cat.

Danny’s mother woke him with a kiss on the cheek. She hadn’t done that for years. He rubbed his eyes. She was wearing her work suit: an expensive-looking ensemble consisting of a black jacket, white blouse, black skirt, and low-heeled shoes. She looked pretty: In the week she’d been away she’d gotten her hair cut short—something he hadn’t noticed the night before at the airport.
    He knew he should tell her that she looked nice, that it would make her feel good, but he was still harboring a lingering resentment toward her. Why did they have to come here for her job, just when he was starting to make friends at Grover Cleveland? He took the middle path, neither praising her looks nor complaining.
    How long had he been asleep? “What day is it?” he asked.
    His mom laughed. “Well, there’s good news and bad news.”
    â€œWhat’s the good news?”
    â€œIt’s Sunday.”
    â€œWhat’s the bad news?”
    â€œYou’ve got school tomorrow.”
    She tugged back the curtains and he noticed that she was holding something in her hand.
    â€œWhat’s that?” he asked.
    â€œI brought you breakfast in bed,” she said, placing a bowl of cereal carefully on the wobbly IKEA bedside table. Juanita was smart but no handyman.
    Still, Danny was proud of her.
    She’d started off as a cleaner in Mr. Glynn’s signature casino on the Strip. She’d gone to night school and learned how to be a blackjack dealer. She was a good dealer: sharp, observant, patient. After a couple of years she’d been promoted to senior dealer and then pit boss, and finally she had moved up the hierarchy to become one of the few female house managers. Juanita had excellent people skills; she was tactful, fair, firm, and though she was only five foot three she could be intimidating when she needed to be. She was good at her job and when they were looking for a manager for Mr. Glynn’s new Indian casino in Cobalt, Colorado, Juanita had seemed like an ideal fit. As well as being one of Mr. Glynn’s best employees, she was half Cherokee …
    â€œI’ve got to go, honey. Please remind your father that he’s seeing Mr. Randall this afternoon.”
    â€œMr. who?”
    â€œRandall. Remind him. I’ve written the address on a Post-it on the fridge. Forty-four Correctional Institution Road. You’ll remind him?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDo you like your room, darling? You have a view.”
    Danny stared at the bare walls for a second and then leaned across and looked out the window. The house was on a rise with a few other homes on either side and beyond the houses a dense, seemingly endless forest that crawled up to a pair of snowcapped mountains.
    It gave him the creeps. Anything could be out there in those trees. Brown bears, black